We're Chugging Along

It has been almost three weeks since we pulled into our driveway. A lot has happened in just a few weeks! I did take a few shots of our house for those that are interested. :)

It's a cul-de-sac!

The first five days of moving boxes, our energy was up and we were cranking out the unpacking. We've slowed down a bit. :) The only room that has boxes is the office/guest room and most of those are filled with my teaching stuff.

The plan is to go through it and reorganize so it makes sense and can easily be stored. I've gone through one rolling cart only because I wanted to use it in the playroom. LOL! As I'm writing this I'm thinking this should be a weekend project, but it didn't happen this weekend. :) This is what happens when I'm trying to leave a classroom as fast as possible because the baby girl came early. ;)

For those that are familiar with the moving process, especially with kids, there are a few things that are important once you get to the new home.
* How will I keep the kids occupied?
* Where will the kid(s) be going to school?
* Where are the nearest Target, Costco, grocery store and other necessary shopping places. :)

Occupying the kids is very important otherwise everyone feels the pain! Here are some pics of what we've been doing.

Homemade popsicles!

Tutu Time! She is such a girl!!

We have a safe place to ride bikes or cars. :)

We tried out the local ice rink! This is wear the Washington Capitals practice!

We had to watch from the second floor because Ava loves the ice! She gets upset when she can't join the boys.

We did go down to say hi during a break. Ava threw a fit and we decided we needed to look for double blade skates for her. She is a joiner!

Dylan did such a great job!! He is barely holding Randy's hand while skating now. The boys have decided that they will be going on their own most Saturdays.

Back at the house, Randy put together the swing set this weekend! Yay! Thank you Billie and family! We love it!

Can you tell it's a bit humid? LOL!

 

The kids "helped" Randy put it together. We even formed a search party for the last tool that he needed because Ava stored it in the sandbox. They have so much fun helping, but it doesn't necessarily make the project easier. I thought the whole thing was amusing, but I was the management side of the project not the execution side.

I really like our outdoor space. We can trap the kiddos on the deck and there is a nice shady space.

The grass area is not fenced, but there is enough space that Ava isn't dashing for the street...right now anyway. :) Between tee ball, golf, horseshoes, soccer and the play set, I think I can keep them busy on the grass.

Ava even falls asleep in the swing. Love it!

I have looked into Little Gym, Gymboree and My Gym. We're lucky because we live near many locations. We are doing our free introductory classes this week at Little Gym in Falls Church. I was going to see if I could work out intro classes at My Gym in Alexandria too, but Dylan wants a sports class and My Gym doesn't off that. That means LG it is; as long as we all love it, which I'm sure we will. This way I'll have activities three days a week; one class for each kid and open gym. Maybe I'll even meet some nice mommies.:) Little Gym is where I met my AZ crew!

A huge check mark off the to-do list was finding Dylan a preschool. He will be attending the 3yr old program at Annadale Methodist Chuch preschool.

We were really impressed with their program and Dylan loved the place! He even invited the Asst. Director over to our house to play. LOL! School doesn't start here until after Labor Day so we have a month to keep them occupied.

As for the last important item on the list, we're lucky because I can say that Target, Costco, Joanne's and all other important shopping are less than 10 min. away! We have three Targets within a six mile radius, which is the most important. ;) Even though they all look close on the map, between traffic and all of the crazy roads, not everything is as convenient as it looks.

Look at this crazy thing!

We went to our third Target this evening though and I think we found our home Target. ;)  In AZ in literally took me 5 minutes to get to my home Target; one light where I made a right turn. It was awesome and dangerous at the same time. ;)

The hubs goes back to work tomorrow so I think our "regular" schedule will start to materialize over the next couple of weeks. This is why I was so focused on kiddo activities; I'm on my own during the day. We'll make it...we always do! :)

A Week of Boxes!

We have been buried in boxes since Monday. I have to say though, we have really tore into the boxes. We should be all unpacked by tomorrow, but we will still be organizing...probably for a while. :)

At 8am we heard a knock on the door from our moving truck driver and the madness began. We waited about 20 minutes for the moving crew to show up.

I got the job of marking off the boxes (they are numbered) to make sure everything made it. That meant that I had to sit in a lawn chair in order to not miss anything. This was a pretty good job. :)

As toys started being unloaded, watching the kiddos got easier.

Ava actually spent a lot of time in the car, but decided to take a break while I was taking pics. :)

We had boxes everywhere!! Once we get it all unpacked, I will post pictures of a decorated house.

During the unpacking process, we have been doing SO many stairs!! The movers never put the boxes in the exact space they belong and since we have more space than the last house, we have been walking from the top floor to the basement over and over again. The first part of the week was also ridiculously hot! I know, I came from Arizona so I should be used to it. Ummm...NO! This humidity thing is completely different! The temp was in the 90's with humidity, our A/C needed to be serviced and we have three skylights in the front room just cooking up the house. Along with A/C, other things came up...

* Terminex came out for ants
* We ordered a water cooler and it was delivered on Wed.
* Randy installed smoke detectors all over the house because we only had two detectors for three floors! Virginia law "suggests" one in each room, but doesn't require it. Crazy!
* Safety gates galore
* Changed out all the curtains in the house except the dining room
* Ordered tinting for the skylights. It will be here on Tues.

Is that it? Nope, but a good start.

I tackled the grocery shopping with my helper Dylan. We first tried Giant and they the neatest scanners that we checked out then took with us while we shopped.

I would take the item off the shelf, scan it then bag it in the cart.

This is a stock pic, not my scanner. ;)

When finished, I scanned a barcode at the register and my whole cart uploaded to the screen! We scanned the coupons then paid. Pretty cool! Dylan was my scanner and he loved it! I'll take a pic with my helper next time. :)

Slowly, but surely we are putting the house together. I'll post updated pics by the end of the weekend.

And The Projects Continue...

Slowly but surely our house is looking more like us even if we are living with about 2% of our stuff. :) IKEA is always so much fun and our trip yesterday did not disappoint. Of course we bribed the kids with ice cream cones for patience and good behavior. Dylan was all over it and Ava had no clue. She backed this up by turning into a total looney toddler that was completely manic running through the showroom floor. We tried to contain, but instead we got a lot of attention from other shoppers. All Randy and I could do was look at each other and laugh.

We walked out of our 2+ hours shopping trip (we did eat lunch there too) with two area rugs w/ the sticky mat underneath, two sets of curtains, trash cans, bath tub safety mat (yes...more safety stuff) and more! We also have a wish list of future items. ;) Here is what we've done so far...

This is the basement. This will go with our khaki couch and brown ottoman. We may even add end tables back to the set up since we don't have any crazy climbers right now. :)

This is where our maroon leather couch set will go. We still need to hang the thin white curtains behind the brown ones. This room has high ceilings, three skylights and is very white. I'm looking forward to seeing what it looks like with furniture and pictures on the walls.

Now for upstairs...

It hard to see, but these curtains are canvas with light blue, khaki, chocolate brown and black squiggles. We still need to put up the thin back curtain.

The room already had a ceiling fan, but it was 80's and rather loud. So...Randy bought a new one and spent a couple hours installing it. We don't have our ladder yet so we used a chair that was around. At one point we were both balancing on the chair because it was a two person job. The resut...very quiet and lots of cool air. :)

We also picked up some contact paper yesterday because the cabinets are older so they are a bit worn on the inside. That is putting it nicely. I wouldn't put my clean dishes directly on the wood. So...I started a big project.

Here is one cabinet. :)

I did all of the lower cabinets today. I will be picking up two more rolls for the drawers and upper cabints tomorrow. Ava was being my "helper"...NOT! She kept crawling inside like it was a game.

It has been challenging living in this campout type of way, it has been great in terms of getting ready for all of our stuff. We have been able to think about where we want things to go so we the movers can do all the heavy lifting. :) We have been able to make little changes without having to work around furniture which is nice. This said...I'm looking forward to the arrival of the truck!

Yes, we have gotten many project started and completed, but we also had some fun exploring the area. While Ava napped, Dylan and I went to check out the playground about a 5 minute walking distance from the house.

Dylan tried out the equipment then we went to the pond with the water feature. We decided to throw small rock in the pond. He has a pretty good arm! No worries...there weren't any ducks and I didn't even see fish so no animals were harmed. ;)

Right about the kids' bedtime, we got a very exciting call! Our moving truck will be delivering our stuff Monday at 8am! Yay!

Before tackling the explosion of the crap that comes from two cars moving across the country in order to be ready for the movers, we are taking the kids to DC tomorrow. Dylan has been looking forward to riding the Metro. He also has a couple books about DC we have been reading so he is ready to see it. We're headed to the Air & Space Museum then a picnic on the Mall. We're looking forward to a large grass area where the kids can run! ;) Exciting!

We're leaving Phoenix...

It is for sure...our time in Phoenix is coming to an end. Now all my military friends are asking, "Did Randy get orders?" Well, the official orders, or contract for my civilian friends, are not in hand; however I can say we're off. Let me share how it all happened in less than a week. Yes...it happened quickly!

Randy had been at annual meeting in Laughlin for the first part of last week. When he got back to the office on Thursday, there was a message waiting from his detailer, the lady who places everyone in their next jobs. She said that an officer was coming in to his job in June and they needed to find Randy a new job that begins around the same time. What? That's less than 6 months away! We're supposed to get a year, but the Navy does what they want when they want.

Randy began looking at an older list of job opportunities (from Nov.)...it was the only one online. There was a job on Oahu...filled. A job in San Diego...filled. A job in Norfolk looked open and I was ready to go back to VA and live in our great house. I even called our property manager there to tell her to have the tenants hold off on signing a renewal on the lease. About 3 hours later, when the detailer called back, we found out that Norfolk was also full. Then came the options...

-Okinawa, Japan....ummmm NO!
-Great Lakes area near Chicago
-Millington, TN (outside Memphis)
-Cocoa Beach, FL
-Kitsap, WA
-Washington DC

Can you guess what we chose?

WASHINGTON DC!

We are returning to the East Coast! When Ran and I were living in Virginia Beach, we always said it would be fun to live in DC. We love the idea of using the Metro to get around. Now that we have kids, I love the idea of going to the zoo

and a variety of museums

for FREE. Now some museums will be more interesting than others ;), but we also have great spaces to walk and run around. I also get to visit DC Cupcakes in Georgetown.

Yummy!

The next step to this madness is waiting for orders so that we can start planning the actual move. His detailer said we can move out there in 60 days because the position is open, but Ran's current command wants there to be a turnover with the new guy. So we'll probably leave in mid July. He'll be working right by Arlington Cemetery and near the Pentagon.  We've been looking at rental homes in Northern Virginia that are close to the Metro. I'm loving the size of these homes! We'll end up hiring a real estate agent to help us out. We did the same thing here in Phx.

I'm going to miss all my great friends here, Dylan's fantastic school, and of course the proximity to our families. I'm excited to conquer a new city and meet new friends. So far I haven't had an issue with that. ;) So this summer will begin our new adventure in DC. Is DC ready for our crazy family? ;)